The Oxford Handbook of Theology, Sexuality, and Gender presents an unrivalled overview of the theological study of sexuality and gender. These topics are not merely contentious and pervasive: they have escalated in importance within theology. Theologians increasingly agree that even the very doctrine of God cannot be contemplated without a prior grappling with each. Featuring 41 newly-commissioned essays, written by some of the foremost scholars in the discipline, this authoritative collection presents and develops the latest thinking in these areas. Divided into eight thematic sections, the Handbook explores: methodological approaches; contributions from neighbouring disciplines; sexuality and gender in the Bible, and in the Christian tradition; controversies within the churches, and within four of the non-Christian faiths; and key concepts and issues. The final, extended section considers theology in relation to married people and families; gay and lesbian people; bisexual people; intersex and transgender people; disabled people; and to friends. This volume is an essential reference for students and scholars, which will also stimulate further research.

This volume presents a project of empirical research on issues of theology, sexuality, and reproductive health and rights. It was carried out by researchers from two theological institutions in Brazil and Colombia in close contact with the grassroots in various civil-society organizations. Numerous studies at twenty-six Latin American institutions on the relation between theology and HIV/AIDS prepared the way for this project. It promotes and applies methodologies for Latin American popular education and participatory action research (PAR). While the project was finalized long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Latin America and the world, the pandemic gave fresh evidence of the relevance of the project. The present volume is the English translation of the initial Portuguese and Spanish reports about the project, enriched with a new preface. The editors are delighted that this translation will help spread the vital insights from this research to a wider and global readership.

Contemporary Theological Approaches to Sexuality provides a much-needed overview of the state of scholarship on Christian theological reflection on sexuality and sexual theology. Critically, it also intervenes in the cultural debate over sexuality by privileging feminist, queer, and other counter-normative perspectives. Comprising twenty-three chapters by a team of international contributors this volume is divided into four parts: • Normativity and transgression • Bodies • Economies and violence • Divinity. Within these sections central issues, debates and problems are examined, including consideration of the complexities of Christian theology in regard to contemporary sexuality debates. Contemporary Theological Approaches to Sexuality is essential reading for students and researchers in the field of religion, sexuality, and Christianity.

The SCM Studyguide Pastoral Theology designed to support undergraduate courses for the training of clergy and lay pastoral workers at an accessible introductory level. The book aims to develop pastoral wisdom and integrity through a critical integration of theology and the human sciences. Introducing key themes in theological anthropology and pastoral practice, it shapes a creative pastoral vision which is deeply rooted in a Christian vision of what it means to be human and what it takes to care. Working with case studies, the book will introduce broad frameworks of understanding of issues such as growth, loss, and sexuality, together with critical perspectives on important aspects of practice such as language, power and boundaries. The book provides an accessible overview of key concepts in pastoral theology, offering key entry points for further discussion and study. Each chapter includes discussion questions and/or reflective exercises at the end of each chapter together with a short bibliography. Throughout the text, key summaries of learning will be indicated by boxed Practice Points.

This work of constructive theology examines human sexuality in light of Christian faith and doctrine. Jensen moves beyond the hot-button social debates about sexual orientation and sexual practices to look for healing. The seven chapters consider Scripture and sex; the connections between the triune, covenantal God and human sexuality; Christ's incarnation and resurrection as affirming the beauty of flesh; eschatology and sexual identity; the ramifications of the Lord's Supper for human sexuality; vocation and Christian callings to marriage, celibacy, and singleness; and sexual ethics.

This book offers a range of interdisciplinary evaluations of the history of same-sex relationships in the Church as they have been understood in different periods and contexts. The relationships between diverse forms of religious and sexual identities have been widely contested in the media since the rise of the lesbian and gay liberation movement in the 1970s. One of the key images that often appears in public debate is that of ‘lesbians and gays in the Church’ as a significant ‘problem’. Research over the past forty years or so into queer theology and the history of same-sex desire has shown that such issues have played an important role in the story of Christianity over many centuries. The contributors to this volume have all been inspired by the challenges of such revisionist study to explore religion and same-sex desire as a field of opportunity for investigation and debate. They uncover some of the hidden histories of the Church and its theologies: they tell sometimes unexpected stories, many of which invite serious further study. It is quite clear through history that some in the churches have been at the vanguard of legislative and social change. Similarly, some churches have offered safe queer spaces. Overall, these essays offer new interpretations and original research into the history of sexuality that helps inform the contemporary debate in the churches as well as in the academy.

Provides strong theological arguments for replacing the binary understanding of gender, and for the embracing of sexual minorities.

This book explores the intersection in contemporary Western culture of Catholic sexual theology and adolescent female developmental and sexual experiences. The voices of adolescent females, so long silent in sexual theologies, are given privilege here in the articulation of a normative theology. Applying a feminist natural law framework, the book engages both theoretical scholarship and practical evidence from psychological and other social sciences to inform sexual theology in the Catholic tradition. Attending to gendered, developmental, and social contexts, Doris Kieser explores adolescent females’ experiences of puberty, menarche, various sexual activities, communities of support, sexual desire, and the pleasure and danger these realities reap. She critically explores historical and traditional sexual theologies and prevailing social patriarchal and androcentric sexual attitudes through a feminist lens. The author’s attention to the voices of girls and women, and her aim to see their sexual flourishing in particular and diverse social contexts, yields a theology mindful of the rich complexities of female sexual desire, pleasure, and well-being. The result is an integrated sexual theology that grapples with the Catholic theological tradition, feminist theory and theology, and the embodied experiences of females. For anyone who is invested in the lives and well-being of adolescent females, this work uncovers both barriers and boons to their sexual flourishing.

Few would doubt that this is a time of transition in our understanding of human sexuality. The confusion about sexual morals and mores is the more obvious evidence of this. But there is something else. For too long the bulk of Christian reflection about sexuality has asked an essentially one-directional question: what does Christian faith have to say about our lives as sexual beings?